Why are only Americans interested in hunt for alien life?

http://www.nbcnews.com/mach/space/only-americans-are-interested-hunt-alien-life-n698706

I tend to agree with the Europeans. I think the universe is probably full of life. I don't know that it's presently life that we can detect and I just don't see SETI as being successful at all. The same argument for SETI could be used for ghost detection.

 

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I suspect it is question of a more limited science budget. Most countries don't have spare cash to throw around on something as speculative as this, when it is ranked (as it has to be) against all the other priorities.

 

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How so? We know life exists. We just have a small data set. The same can't be said for ghosts.

 

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We have found the same amount of alien life than we have found of ghosts.

 

We don't have the spare cash either. Some of those other countries have more for this than we do.

 

We have found life. We know it exists. There is one extant example of it. Now we're just looking for a second data point.

The same cannot be said for ghosts.

 

I stand by my statement that the same argument could be used. I didn't stay that the two scenarios were the same.

I too think that the universe is full of life, as I said, but we have no evidence of life outside of Earth and we have no evidence of ghosts so until we find life on one other planet the argument is the same as for ghosts. The probability for life is much,much higher than for ghosts but the evidence for life outside of life is the same as for ghosts...zero.

I just don't think we are going to find that life (which I do think exists) with our current (and perhaps future) technology.

 

I'm not comparing the probabilities here. I'm comparing the evidence between the two which is the same. No evidence for ghosts and no evidence for life outside of Earth and therefore the "argument" is the same. No one said the factual situation was the same.

 

Isn't SETI now funded by private companies and public donations?

 

Future technology
Isn't this a bit like.. .Fred Flintstone can't receive radio waves with his flint axe, and so perhaps will not be receiving radio waves with his future technology? There goes electromagnetic communications.
I acknowledge your ''perhaps''.

 

Yes, perhaps.

Future technology still has to obey the laws of physics. It is possible that there is life and that two life forms will never be able to contact each other due to distances and due to intelligent life forms that could communicate not being concurrent with other intelligent life forms.

 

I think so. That's why I said other countries can afford it just as well as we can. They just don't think it's worth it nor do I. I don't mind that they are doing it just as I don't mind it when a wealthy person has gold plated faucets in the bathroom. It's just not important or necessary.

There is never enough funding for everything even when it is privately funded. If it is privately funded money can be wasted on frivolous projects. I'm not saying categorically that this is frivolous but it's getting close. Certainly it would be at the bottom of the list of any list that was prioritized.

 

Isn't that... Our present understanding of the laws of physics and the laws we currently know of ? Or... Our present stage of comprehending Nature is to make 'laws'.

The distances may be an inconvenience for two way communications, but not for 'picking-up' a signal which indicates an intelligent origin/source. The aliens we can't communicate with may be the lucky ones.

Spin-off Successes of SETI Research
Link

And for student learning...

Would you have these kind of spin-offs ghost hunting?

 

Yes, why wouldn't you?

 

Is that... yes, you would have these sort of spin-offs hunting for ghosts?
Give us a link to ghost hunting spin-offs matching those of SETI research.

 

Spend the same money and research manpower on ghost hunting and you will have the same spin-offs since the spin-offs weren't based on actually finding anything.

 

So no links? You think there are equal 'chances' of ghost detecting and alien signal detecting? Links please.

 

Check your TV guide

Lots of ghost hunting spin off programs


Humpty with a ghostly smile

 

You beat me to it...Entertainment
Commercial Halloween.